


Out of Order

by firecat



Category: Babylon 5
Genre: Bureaucracy, Diplomacy, Gen, jump gates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:20:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25013821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firecat/pseuds/firecat
Summary: Commander Susan Ivanova hates public relations.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 13
Collections: Babylon 5 Love Month, Froday Flash Fiction Little & Monthly Specials 2020





	Out of Order

**Author's Note:**

> FFFC 100th Special Challenge  
> Table D: Fairytale/Fantasy/SciFi  
> Written for the prompt: 12. stargate

The jump gates are down again. Commander Susan Ivanova hates it when that happens. Because they all complain to her about it. 

She’s not responsible for fixing the jump gates. She wouldn’t know where to begin. Even if she were threatened with having to perform another mating dance with the Lumati. 

She’s not responsible for arrivals/departures/shipping/receiving/refrigeration/law enforcement either. Sometimes she has to take on diplomacy, but for her it usually winds up embarrassing (the aforementioned Lumati) or dangerous (the time the Drazi broke her leg in a skirmish over green and purple pieces of cloth).

Nevertheless, they persist. In complaining. To her.

If it’s not the inconvenienced individuals themselves, then it’s their facilitators, minders, jailers, agents, secretaries, trade partners, or station crew they’ve bullied into speaking to her on their behalf. (No station crew speak to Ivanova about the jump gates voluntarily. At least not more than once.)

No one knows when their shipment of spoo, or whatever disgusting local delicacy, is going to arrive. Doesn’t she realize that it’s only ripe / alive / fertile / fresh / at its peak of flavor for one cycle? Doesn’t she know the economic devastation that will occur if it spoils / dies / goes to seed / evolves sentience / develops the flavor of old gym socks?

People who want to leave the station, can’t. Doesn’t she know that they urgently have to be somewhere else, for a meeting, celebration, negotiation, battle, examination, diplomatic function, or because they forgot to find a pet sitter for their menagerie of tarantulas?

People who need to be removed from the station, can’t be. The ratio of bars to drunk tanks is highly suboptimal. Spacing and other forms of execution are considered cruel and unusual punishment. (What about being treated as everyone’s personal angry-vent receptacle? Isn’t that cruel and unusual?)

People who want to arrive at the station, can’t. They’re going to miss a crucial match, a secret assignation, a connecting flight, their one chance to acquire a treasure or fulfill a vendetta. 

But this time, this time is the worst. Ambassador Londo Mollari’s wife Timov is stuck on the station.


End file.
